Isiolo Health Executive Wario Galma has dismissed claims that quarantine centres are in a deplorable state, arguing that the county has put in place all the necessary measures to ensure safety and comfort of patients.
He said those at the centres are being provided with masks on a daily basis and that new traced contacts are being separated from the rest.
“We have sanitisers outside and in each quarantine centre and the contacts are every Monday provided with seven masks to take them through the entire week,” he said.
He said 55 bales of flour were on Monday supplied to quarantine centres across the county in addition to the remaining food supplied a week ago.
FOOD
Residents in the quarantine centres earlier lamented that they were not getting enough food and that they would on several occasions skip evening meals only to be served with a cup of tea the following morning, allegations that Mr Galma disputed, maintaining that there are enough provisions at the facilities.
“The bedding have never been changed since I was brought here. We are the ones to wash for ourselves and the new people coming are not isolated but brought in to mingle with us,” said one of them.
Another said, “We are wondering where the purported food by the county government went to because we have been starving and living in pathetic conditions.”
The Health executive said 33 people who came into contact with Isiolo’s fourth Covid-19 patient, a police officer who travelled from Kitui, have been quarantined in Merti.
CONTACTS
They include some five officers who interacted with him immediately he returned and those who travelled with him in the same bus from Isiolo town to Biliqo on May 27, 2020.
Speaking to the Nation, the health executive said samples from the contacts had been sent to Nairobi for testing.
“We are waiting for the results for the 33 who came into contact with the officer,” said Mr Galma.
Contact tracing for other residents who interacted with the patient isolated at Merti Sub-County Hospital is ongoing, he added.
Three patients are still in isolation after the first victim, a 62-year-old businessman who sneaked into the county from Eastleigh, was discharged from the facility.